One of the fastest growing segments of both the housing and transportation industries is the motor home. Many people, particularly retired people are making the motor home their only residence.
Motor homes have evolved from busses, trucks, and vans to the dedicated chassis, built from the ground up to be a motor home. Market demand for more functional space has evolved the “bump out” or “slide out”, an enclosed section that pushes out from the side to expand the living area. Some units even have opposite sides move out to expand the width of the living area from 8′ to 12′ or more.
The interior architecture of motor homes draws heavily from residential home design. Motor homes today, however, have most of their furniture fixed in one position. This tends to define a given space to one function, with the exception of couches and dinettes that are convertible into beds. The ability to rearrange furniture allows for increased flexibility in the use of limited space. With limited space in the cabin of a recreational vehicle, the space that is available must be used in the most efficient way possible, often for a variety of functions.
Luxurious amenities such as hot tubs and king size beds take up valuable floor space, are not known to be readily movable, and inhibit flexible and varied utilization of space. Often the penalty in lost floor space exceeds the pleasure derived from their availablity, and the customer prefers to forgo the luxury.
In an effort to increase usable space available to recreational vehicle consumers, and allow those users greater outdoor exposure, many manufacturers are installing roof decks, taking up substantially the entire length of the vehicle. These decks, however, are narrow as a result of the narrow configuration of the roof of the vehicle. These decks likewise use roof space that might otherwise be used for utilitarian mechanical devices, such as heating and cooling modules, moon-roofs, solar panels, and skylights.
Clearly what is needed is a recreational vehicle capable of providing luxurious amenities in an ample and flexible living space.